Detroit Institute of Arts initiates Teen Arts Council to engage metro Detroit students Funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, students serve as paid interns to help develop teen arts programs

Updated Jun 22, 2017

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June 21, 2017 (Detroit)—Fifteen high school students from five tri-county schools are part of a new Teen Arts Council (TAC) at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), funded by a $30,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Guided by DIA educators, the paid TAC interns will help design, implement and promote teen arts programming at the museum with the goal of attracting a more diverse, engaged teen audience. Additionally, the program will introduce the students to a range of museum professional career paths.

The DIA recruited students from Cass Technical High School (Detroit), Detroit International Academy for Young Women, Fitzgerald High School (Warren), Frederick Douglass Academy for Young Men (Detroit) and Hazel Park High School. TAC students represent the cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity of the tri-county region and will support the museum’s ongoing initiative to be a town square where everyone feels welcome and represented.

“Members of the Teen Arts Council have the opportunity to use the DIA as a space to explore, challenge, interpret and question,” said Salvador Salort-Pons, DIA director. “Working together on real-life projects will help the students develop the skills necessary to thrive as dynamic, creative and critically thinking adults. In turn, the DIA will learn from the council how to better engage with teens and foster a lifelong relationship with art.”

The students will bring their experience and skills learned during the participation on the Teen Arts Council back to their schools and communities. School administrators will help them connect their work at the DIA to humanities initiatives within their schools.

The DIA believes there are a host of benefits to engaging teenagers with art. Researchers at the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Contemporary Art Museum Houston and the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles conducted a landmark study in 2011 that looked at the long-term impact of intensive teen programs in art museums. They found that such programs created a lifelong relationship with museums and culture, expanded career options, improved personal identity and self-knowledge, provided a broader worldview grounded in art and fostered an aptitude for community engagement and influence.

Image removed.

June 21, 2017 (Detroit)—Fifteen high school students from five tri-county schools are part of a new Teen Arts Council (TAC) at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), funded by a $30,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Guided by DIA educators, the paid TAC interns will help design, implement and promote teen arts programming at the museum with the goal of attracting a more diverse, engaged teen audience. Additionally, the program will introduce the students to a range of museum professional career paths.

The DIA recruited students from Cass Technical High School (Detroit), Detroit International Academy for Young Women, Fitzgerald High School (Warren), Frederick Douglass Academy for Young Men (Detroit) and Hazel Park High School. TAC students represent the cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity of the tri-county region and will support the museum’s ongoing initiative to be a town square where everyone feels welcome and represented.

“Members of the Teen Arts Council have the opportunity to use the DIA as a space to explore, challenge, interpret and question,” said Salvador Salort-Pons, DIA director. “Working together on real-life projects will help the students develop the skills necessary to thrive as dynamic, creative and critically thinking adults. In turn, the DIA will learn from the council how to better engage with teens and foster a lifelong relationship with art.”

The students will bring their experience and skills learned during the participation on the Teen Arts Council back to their schools and communities. School administrators will help them connect their work at the DIA to humanities initiatives within their schools.

The DIA believes there are a host of benefits to engaging teenagers with art. Researchers at the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Contemporary Art Museum Houston and the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles conducted a landmark study in 2011 that looked at the long-term impact of intensive teen programs in art museums. They found that such programs created a lifelong relationship with museums and culture, expanded career options, improved personal identity and self-knowledge, provided a broader worldview grounded in art and fostered an aptitude for community engagement and influence.